There is an ever-increasing amount of video content available for consumption by end users. Video content is available from an ever-increasing variety of content providers including: broadcast television (TV), video on demand (VOD), downloads from the internet, online retailers (e.g. DVD retailers) etc.
Many internet websites provide details about the availability of TV and other video content including TV listings data and also other relevant data about TV and video content (e.g. synopsis data, series/episode guides, reviews, news, etc.). Many websites are online versions of traditional, printed TV listings magazines, with a focus on presenting TV schedules in an electronic program guide (EPG) grid based format, together with various editorial content. Examples of such sites are www.tvguide.com, www.tv.com and www.radiotimes.com. A website focusing on films/movies is www.IMDb.com.
Many websites are also starting to include links to TV content that is available not only via broadcast TV but also legitimately on the internet. More recently, websites are emerging that include searchable indexes of online video, part of which may be TV content (e.g. www.searchvideo.com, video.google.com, and www.weshow.com. Unfortunately, many of these websites also include links to illegally hosted content.
Meevee (www.meevee.com) is a USA based service that brings together traditional TV listings and online video from hundreds of different sources. MeeVee enables users to personalize content guides in order to discover new programming choices based on their own individual interests. The “Meevee Guide Widget” enables users to share what they are watching on TV with other internet users by allowing the Meevee user to insert a Meevee widget on their own website or blog site. The service currently only works with USA TV listings.